What Devil? Who is he? Where does he live? What does he do? He creates the Blues! The Blues, as Wynton Marsalis put it, is " The Enemy On High Ground". The Blues is also the enemy within, is aches, pain and longing and sadness. On High Ground stand opression, poverty and humiliation. All combined, these forces make up an enemy so formidable that only the insane, the truly fearless or the true believer would dare step up and combat him toe to toe.

I have seen very few artists tread on the ground, where there is no room for half-heartedness, deceit or posturing, without some form of compromise or security, and shout into the face of the devil, "Here I am, this is what I do and you are not going to stop me!" One of these few is John Mooney, an artist whose persona can neither be analysed nor understood independently of his music, or vice versa. The source of his music is a deep inner necessity, in every way existential, to bring forth songs and guitar sounds that will keep the enemy at bay. Night by night, one night at a time, two steps forward and one backward - more cannot be expected. There is nothing slick about John Mooney, nothing friendly or comforting, nothin accomodating or polite. The music is not meant to entertain. It is the raw viscerality of battling the powers of the devil.

As his friend and mentor Son House did for nearly two thirds of this century before him, John Mooney has taken up this fight. It was not a conscious decision or a choice. It is what he is here to do, his reason for beeing, and on this particular night in Bremen several hundred poeple who had also come to party, celebrate an anniversary, listen to classical and folk music concerts suddenly found themselves shouting, screaming, jumping, dancing and joining forces with John Mooney. They went home victorious, that night.